Will new Richmond Police website impact real estate sales?

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RICHMOND, Va. -- Richmond Police unveiled a new crime database website to make it easier to track crimes in your neighborhood. But will the easy-to-use online tool have a negative impact on real estate sales in certain neighborhoods?

River City Blues real estate agent Smitty Smith said he viewed the site as helpful for potential home buyers, but potentially negative for the sellers.

"People might look real negatively upon your street, but that might not be an actual representation of your block," Smith said. "[Maybe] that date and that time you had more issues than what you normally have.”

Richmond Police Chief Ray Tarasovic said the department’s new online crime database will not only add a level of transparency to what police do, but he said he hoped it would help encourage neighbors to take a more active role in community policing.

“We’re not trying to hide crime, we want people to know what’s going on in their communities,” Chief Tarasovic said.

The crime database — called RAIDS Online — maps and analyzes city crime.